This is a critical question. If miracles didn’t happen, then the biggest miracle of all- the resurrection- didn’t happen. If that didn’t happen, then the faith of Christians really is worthless.  The Bible itself acknowledges that reality.

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:14

Go For the Jugular

Josh McDowell knew that the miracle of the resurrection was critical to the faith of Christians, so as he set out to prove Christianity was a joke, he went for the jugular. He zeroed in on the resurrection. His intense and thorough analysis reset the trajectory of his life. When he discovered that all the evidence pointed to the reality of this miracle, his life made a dramatic shift. I won’t go into all the detail of the arguments her, as they’ve been fully covered in his book Evidence that Demands a Verdict and addressed more briefly in these posts on his website: Resurrection of Jesus: Fact or Hoax andIs Jesus’s Resurrection Fact? History Weighs In.

Can They Be Disproved?

Another guy who set out to disprove Christianity, using all the critical journalistic and legal techniques that a Law graduate from Yale and expert journalist for the Chicago Tribune could muster. His was a similar experience. In discovering that the evidence was significantly against him, his life also experienced a trajectory change. You can watch his story in The Case for Christ: One Man’s Journey to Solve the Biggest Mystery of All Time. He has a number of books, but taking his skeptical approach, he looked at miracles in his book The Case for Miracles.

The Power of Witnesses

To consider whether the miracles in the Bible happened and whether miracles still happen, we must look at the power of witnesses. Craig Keener in his free online Acts study from biblicaltraining.org  discusses this in lecture 4: Themes in Acts and the Credibility of Miracles.

Imagine a car accident happens. A number of people surround the police officer, detailing the event for him. These witnesses are soon interrupted by a very vocal man. This man adamantly claims,

“No! That is not what happened. This is what happened…”

The police officer stops him, “Were you there? Did you witness the accident?”

“No, but they are wrong….” the man would quickly lose the ear of the police officer and be silenced by the testimony of the witnesses who were actually there.

Today, many in the non-majority world act like that man, declaring loudly and adamantly that the miracles of the Bible did not happen. But the testimony of eye-witnesses to the miracles, including the over 500 people who witnessed the resurrected Jesus, would have drown out those arguments in the days of the early church.

Today’s Eye-Witnesses to Miracles

As a footnote in his Acts study, Craig Keener, author of the Bible-study-changing IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, set out to do a little research into miracles today. His footnote turned into a book over 1,000 pages long. It all boils down to this: across denominations, across the world, eye witnesses to miracles just like those in the Bible are multiplying today. Medical documentation in hand, Craig spends two classes detailing miracles for which we have multiple eye witnesses walking the globe right now. (Update in 2023, Craig has written an amazing, very accessible book called Miracles Today with hundreds of scientifically documented cases of miracles in the world today. Hands down amazing!)

After 45 minutes of his first lecture, I wept. I was just overwhelmed. If you are from the majority world, this may be no surprise to you. If you happen to be like me, having come from the logical, science-driven minority world, then you likely haven’t heard anything like this. Scientifically-sound, with eye witnesses and medical documentation in hand, these miracles will rock your world. 

If you:

• Wonder if the miracles of the Bible could have happened
• Wonder if miracles could happen today and/or
• Want to get closer to God

Then, please, get yourself a free login to watch Craig’s course and check out lectures 4 and 5. 

• Lecture 4: Themes in Acts and the Credibility of Miracles
• Lecture 5: Miracles and Evangelism in Acts

Want to Know More?

If you’d like to know more, check out:

• Craig Keener’s Miracles Today
• Craig Keener’s free study on Acts Lectures 4 and 5
• Craig Keener’s Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts
• Lee Strobel’s The Case for Miracles
• Josh McDowell’s Evidence that Demands a Verdict
• Did the Resurrection Really Happen?
• The God Stories Project

Copyright ©  2019 Angela Edmonds. All rights reserved.

Photo by Beau Raw .